The video monitor system, aiming at monitoring against intruders, conventionally uses a time-lapse VTR or the like. The time-lapse VTR can continuously record, frame by frame, the video signal inputted from a video camera at a constant interval of several to several tens seconds, over several tens hours.
In the time-lapse VTR, there is restriction in recording time to an analog videotape. Hence, recording time is increased by implementing video recording in a feed-frame way. However, where a recorded video image is utilized in crime investigation for example, there is possibly a case requiring a video with such a high frame rate that can confirm a detailed behavior of an intruder instead of a video feed frame.
There are known arts, meeting such a requirement, described in JP-A-08-77468, JP-A-2000-253390 and JP-A-2000-20857.The arts describing them lies in that video-image analyzing means is provided in a system having a monitor camera on a video-image sending side whereby only when there is significant information (e.g. a moving object) in a video image, the video image is to be sent. Thus, recording time is increased by recording solely the image containing significant information instead of by increasing recording time due to video feed frame.
Meanwhile, JP-A-11-32321 describes a monitor system which detects an video image at an occurrence of abnormality by image recognition and records abnormality information simultaneously with recording a video image so that a video image of upon occurring abnormality can be rapidly searched by making reference to a list of abnormality information.
Although the foregoing conventional example sends only video data detected of significant information by video analysis, there exist recognition errors in the video recognition process with a computer. Namely, there is a fear of situation that the video observer overlook significant information in a video image or that significant information be not left on the record.
Meanwhile, in the video monitor system, when storing the video data being sent continuously for a long time, there is a need to concurrently carry out a storage process of video data and a search/display process of video data. However, the foregoing prior art does not present a method to search/display a data file of video data.